Recipient organisationOffice for National StatisticsSource-published name: Office for National Statistics
Funding£24.7M
PeriodMar 2022 — Mar 2026
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
The UK government is opening up its vast stores of anonymised data—from tax records to school attendance—so that accredited researchers can link them together and analyse how society actually works. This matters because government departments currently hold data in isolated silos, making it nearly impossible to answer questions that cut across policy areas, such as how housing policy affects health outcomes, or whether changes to benefits alter employment patterns. Without linked data, policymakers rely on surveys or guesswork. If ADR UK succeeds, decision-makers will have concrete evidence on which to base policies on employment, education, housing, and public health. The ONS is expanding its Secure Research Service to give researchers safe access to these linked datasets while protecting privacy. The result could be more effective public services and better-targeted spending—changes that quietly shape how schools, hospitals, and job centres function across the UK.
View original technical description
ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK) is a partnership transforming the way researchers access the UK’s wealth of public sector data, to enable better informed policy decisions that improve people’s lives. By linking together data held by different parts of government, and by facilitating safe and secure access for accredited researchers to these newly joined-up data sets, ADR UK is creating a sustainable body of knowledge about how our society and economy function – tailored to give decision makers the answers they need to solve important policy questions. ADR UK is made up of three national partnerships (ADR Scotland, ADR Wales, and ADR NI) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which ensures data provided by UK government bodies is accessed by researchers in a safe and secure form with minimal risk to data holders or the public. The partnership is coordinated by a UK-wide Strategic Hub, which also promotes the benefits of administrative data research to the public and the wider research community, engages with UK government to secure access to data, and manages a dedicated research budget. ADR UK is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation. To find out more, visit adruk.org or follow @ADR_UK on Twitter. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) plays a crucial role in sourcing, linking and curating public sector data for ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK), ensuring that all data is accessed by researchers in a safe and secure form. To support the ADR UK partnership, ONS is expanding and improving its established Secure Research Service (SRS) – the organisation’s facility for providing secure access to de-identified public sector data for research – and significantly increasing the range of administrative data available. ONS will focus on increased data reuse to deliver efficiencies to government departments (who only need to provide data once), and maximise the use of this data by identifying shared priorities and objectives with government departments.
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